


(the five thousandth fic to be titled) across the universe

by poalimal



Series: WIP Amnesty [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Ableism, Families of Choice, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Titled 'the one where rey is an alien... and finn is not' in my drafts, Vignettes, old fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 05:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 5,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16549493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poalimal/pseuds/poalimal
Summary: Rey asked, 'What do you think about when you think about home?'





	1. SPACE

**Author's Note:**

> In writing Star Wars fic, I think it is important to write against the colonial tradition of the SW universe specifically, and the sci-fi genre generally, and indicate what has been borrowed in the creation of a non-canon culture, and what has been created. While I hardly think this fic is any great anticolonial work, I will try to maintain notes and context at the bottom of each little vignette where possible, to indicate what comes from where. This fic features somewhat of an alternate Earth, in which certain aspects of this Earth's cultures are combined with various bits and bobbles from the canon Star Wars universe. Keola, as an example, is a real Hawaiian name, matete is a real dish eaten in Martinique and Guadeloupe (among other places), and Takodana is the canon placename of the planet where Maz' cantina is located.

 

Of all the rooms in the house, Finn's most favourite is the attic. Rey's room. In the dry season, it's too hot during the day, and in the wet season it's all-stick - but the nights are always nice: they take the heat and dry it out, calm it down. It's the perfect room for sleepovers.

When they were little, before the roof was Absolutely Forbidden, he and Rey used to climb onto it and stare up at the sky for so long they'd get dizzy and tired.

Rey always used to point up up up and say, I'll get back there someday.

And Finn never used to say anything, because he never remembered anything of their time before coming to Earth. The thought of space, the thought of going there _on purpose_ has always been cold and dead and really scary - but the thought of being without Rey has always been worse. But Rey never used to say, _We'll_ get back there someday. So: Finn never said anything at all.

 

* * *

 

Until one night - Rey asked, 'What do you think about when you think about home?'

Downstairs, Granny was playing records Mr Granny left her: in a sad mood. Bison & Coax had left earlier for some evening performance. Ankit wasn't home yet. Humbi still went out dancing in those days. The house was alone except for the three of them.

Up in Rey's room, they'd spread out a few comforters over the carpet so they could lay on the floor together, even though Granny always said that was no good for their backs. The window was slightly open and the air was warm. Outside looked like the bottom of a dream - like if the sea and sky were one great big blink, dark and huge and shining with lights.

'I think about,' said Finn, very slowly, 'swimming...in the sea, with you.' He already knew what she thought about - at that point, she'd told him many times. She thought about their home planet, a dry, dead place that sounded made up and strange, totally unreal.

Rey was quiet beside him for a long moment. 'You know...before coming here, I never imagined there could be so much water...so many green things.'

For Finn, there has never been a coming or a going; he has only ever been here. He's never imagined a place without a sea, or a place without trees, because a place without seas or trees is not a place he can even remember. But that stuff didn't matter - that night he reached for Rey's hand anyway. Their palms gripped; it felt like the middle of Finn's chest was opening up and spilling everywhere.

'Home for me isn't...water, or green things, or swimming, or any of that kind of stuff.' Rey's eyes were very wide. 'Home for me is you, Rey.'

 

* * *

 

Home is, also: a room down the hall from Granny, where he sleeps. A sweater thrayed at the bottom; a shirt with Dakân Tower on it that he shares with Rey - cast-offs from the cousins. The feeling he gets when he swims down deep in the middle of the day and can see clear, all the way down and all the way up. Ankit's weird music floating up from the basement. The spot below Rey's elbow that always makes her laugh when poked. Voice and piano lessons once a month from Miss Priggance. Listening to Ordina Solano on the radio on Sunday evenings with Humbi. Avoiding the kids from town out on the beach after school. Riding behind Rey on their rusty old bike. The sweat on the back of his neck as it touches the sea-wind at the top of the mountain. The made-up words Rey teaches him. Backporch lime-cayenne-mango.

The sun at the rim of the sky, right before it dips into the sea.

 

* * *

 

Home is not:  
Getting sick anymore.  
Sleeping outdoors.  
Wherever Rey goes when she sneaks out alone at night.  
Being tired and hungry and worried of strangers.  
Space.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Will expand on this a bit in the notes for Eixton, but think of Dakân Tower as an iconic tourist trap, like the CN Tower.


	2. TAKODANA ROOM & BOARD

 

Their house is really big. A dead Prince left Granny a lot of money once, is why. Way long ago, Granny used to travel all the time, but then she got tired of it, so she came to Qiopo and bought lots of land and had a big old boarding house built: Takodana, after the last queen of Amas.

Qiopo, Amas and Galo are all sister islands, but they are very different, just like real sisters. It is a lot harder, for example, for people from Amas or Galo to buy land where they live. Nobody lives on Galo since the ravage, of course, but Amas is where Granny is from, and where all her sisters and brothers and Great-Ommer Pax still live.

Most of Granny's kids live wayout Eixton though; whenever Finn talks to his cousins on the phone, he always has to speak real stiff and careful so they can understand him. They're nice, though; Granny says they'll come and visit someday.

 

* * *

 

Whenever he or Rey complain about all the chores they have to do, cleaning up the whole huge house, Granny says he and Rey are lucky. 'When I were so young, about so high,' she always says, crouching down little-little 'till she matches Rey's height, 'naye I none we had a spit-copper!'

Something else she says: 'You can give nothing back in this life if you do' in first give back gratitude.'

Finn guesses he is grateful; he would just find it easier to be grateful if he didn't have so many chores, is all.

 

HIS CHORES

Clean:

  * Common areas on the bottom floor
  * Toilets on the bottom floor
  * The empty room on the bottom floor
  * The back porch
  * His room
  * The inside of the windows he can reach



 

  
REY'S CHORES

Clean:

  * Common areas on the top floor
  * Toilets on the top floor
  * The empty room on the top floor
  * The front porch
  * Her room
  * The outside of the windows she can reach



Granny takes care of her own room and the main level - the kitchen, the living room, the dining room, the study, the half-toilet. And if Ankit's around, she pays her to clean the windows none of them can reach.

The garage and the garden Granny takes care of herself, too, but she rotates between Finn and Rey who helps out where. Finn gets the garage more often than not because Rey and Granny always get distracted taking something apart, and Finn gets all sluggish and sleepy whenever he's out in the dry sun for too long.

Sometimes, on really nice, really pretty days, when the entire garden smells like rikya pepper and lemonspice, and everything is pink and orange and blue and green, Finn feels that if he were to just fall into the soil one day and sleep there until he grew into a little Finn tree ... it wouldn't be so bad.

 

* * *

 

Granny says that most of the people born on Qiopo, will die there, too. But sometimes people visit and decide they want to stay, like Granny, or like Bison & Coax, who are both Eixtoni originally. Sometimes people get kicked out of their house, like Ankit, who is An Artist, and who still carries around the P.I. Puppy Dog! keychain Finn gave her a whole year ago. Sometimes people are all alone, like Humbi -- he never uses the house phone.

Once a month they all have a house dinner: everybody brings a dish and something to talk about - Granny makes a roast, generally, and she likes to talk about whatever project she's working on in the garage lately.

Humbi always makes spicy garland stew, and he always wants to talk about the latest episode of Vibrant Days of Our Youth, even though no one else listens to it. It's more interesting that way.

Ankit always brings something from Canka House in town, down on Perth, usually refried noodlestick or something like that - she likes talking about the government, and reformation, and things like that.

Coax usually makes the salad, and Bison brings sweetdrink, for the adults after dinner. They don't, generally speaking, talk much.

Finn and Rey usually make the pocket cake together, and have to decide on a topic to share. Once they talked about what they were learning in school. Once they talked about the little places all along the bank that you can only get to if you're small. Once Finn didn't feel like talking at all, and neither did Rey, so Granny sung a song for them all instead.

One thing that's really nice about Humbi and Ankit and Bison & Coax is that they never talk down to him or Rey, and none of them ever make him feel stupid for sometimes talking too fast or too slow.

Granny says the people who live in the house are tenants, not family, and not to confuse the two - but what do you call the people who've lived with you in your home almost all your life, if not family?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was thinking of Eton, Brixton and Toronto when I came up with Eixton (all very different places, ofc). Think of Eixton as the Briterican-Canaustralia for island emigrants.


	3. SWIM

   
If Finn could choose to do one thing forever, and one thing only, he would choose swimming. He is not allowed to say so, because Granny says it's boastful, but he can hold his breath longer underwater than anyone else. Even Rey! And Rey is better than ev-ery-one at ev-ery-thing.

Once Rey dropped her bracelet in the water and Finn swum all the way down to the bottom of the ocean to find it. But then Nierma said he was lying so he swum out all the way to the bridge, further than he'd ever been before, to prove him wrong. He nearly drowned, and anyway Nierma was still really mean to him afterwards - but he did it then, and he can do it now.

Granny says he shouldn't tell people stuff like that. She says Finn is special. What she really means is he's _different_.

Sometimes Finn gets tired of being different in a weird way. Sometimes he wishes he was different in a Rey way - but then he wouldn't be able to swim half so good as he does.

 


	4. SCHOOL

 

School is...ok. Parts of it are kind of bad, parts of it are less bad. Finn likes analytics and break best. Break is nice because you get to run around after lunch, and also because he can talk to Rey, who he normally doesn't see on account of she's in different classes than him.

Analytics is ok. It's clean most of the time, is why, and even when it's not clean, the numbers are still friendly. Plus Ms Ghale is always patient with him, and she never shouts.

Language is ok some of the time, and really boring the rest of the time. It's the opposite of analytics, sort of - letters get tangled and messy and mean. Ms Hirata says he has a lot of potential. Equis says he is a word that is impolite to repeat.

Dynamics is ok, but not this year - Mr Boris, the new teacher, doesn't like him. He says Finn is inattentive. Granny says he is a dreamer. _Rey_...says he lets people push him around.

'I do _not_ ,' he says. They're walking home from school - Rey had an important test or something so she couldn't come out at break. It's the first time Finn's talked all day, except for in science, when Mr Boris made him read a whole five sentences aloud and didn't let him stop, not even when his stuttering got so bad the whole class laughed.

Finn kicks a pebble out of his path; tries to anyway. Instead it gets stuck in his sandal.  
  
Figures. He _really_ wishes they were allowed to ride their old bike along the main road.

'Don't sigh, it's true!' Rey insists. 'And it's not that I don't get why - I mean, people down here can be really mean. And for no reason! They just-- take what's not theirs and waste what is. And they won't stop if you don't do anything, you know. You have to _make_ them stop.'

Ok, that's all well and good but-- '--how can I make a teacher stop,' Finn mumbles. 'I'd get in trouble.'

Rey doesn't say anything for a while. 'I dunno, Finn. I s'pose...one day...you'll just know? One day, nothing else will matter...but making it stop.'

Finn rolls his eyes. Rey can be dumb sometimes. 'O-----------k ... so ... what do I do until then?'

'Well, you can stop shooting down everything I say,' Rey huffs, shoving at him a little. 'For starters!'

Finn pretends to overbalance. 'Hey,' he whinges, 'Granny says you have to be _nice_ to me. Because I am so _sensitive_.'

'Sensitive?' Rey stops on the side of the road, staring around wide-eyed. 'Who?' She pretends to look under her arm. 'Where?'

'Ah....here!' Finn taps her on the shoulder, laughs at her outraged face, darts back. Rey's eyes narrow in challenge.

'I'm not sensi--' she lunges for him; misses '-- _tive_. Hey!' Finn doesn't look back, gleeful. 'I'm not racing you, Finn. _Finn._ I know you can hear me! ... Your sandals came off, you know! I'm _not_ picking them up. ... _Finn_!'

When they get home later, even though they've picked out all the leaves from their hair, and miraculously relocated his sandals, Granny still somehow knows they've been klousing in the streets, and says they can't play music after dinner.

Rey is convinced that Granny can read minds; if only, Finn thinks, she would use her powers for good.

 


	5. GRANNY

 

Granny says she is the oldest woman on the island - she says she even met Lady Qiopo once, the lady who pushed the volcanoes up out of the water so that everybody could live and play in the sun. Ms Ghale says that is probably a tall tale, meaning it is a story-lie, and also that it is impolite to call a woman old.

Granny may or may not be not-young, but she has been all over the world. She has the most interesting life of anyone Finn's ever met. She's been to Galo, Baksat-Pon, Orwei, Naj Cant back when it was Naj Dute, Svaize, Jurplace, Voita, Eixton, Paninci ... once she even went to Tarusa, clear across the globe. It took her two days by boatfly to get there. Two whole days!

The furthest Finn has ever been off the island was when he swum all the way to Borda Bridge and back, 'cus Nierma dared him, and that doesn't even count, 'cus he almost died, so it wasn't fun.

Coming from space also doesn't count, 'cus he doesn't remember that.

Granny says she's related to everyone, by way of blood first and by way of God second. She's got fourteen brothers and sisters, one sibling named Pax, six daughters and sons, and more grandkids than anybody, probably.

Plus, since she's signed stuff that makes Finn and Rey her family, that means her family is their family, too. So they are all part of a pretty big family now.

In a way, this means that Granny's stories are their stories, too.


	6. A STORY ABOUT GRANNY

 

Granny and her fourteen brothers and sisters and Pax all grew up in Amas, Qiopo's twin island, in a tiny little mountain town called Cillo.

Back then Granny wasn't Granny - she was just lil' pok-a-puk Maziri Kanata. One day some people said the river was going to be moved away because of a dam - so Granny and her fourteen brothers and sisters and Pax marched all the way down the mountain and waited in front of the mayor's house in the capital for eight long days in the height of summer.

At first the fancy-shoes people at the bottom of the mountain thought they were beggars, as they had no shoes - but when they tried to give them food, Granny and her fourteen brothers and sisters and Pax gave everything away.

'We did not come here for food,' said Granny, 'we came here for the name of the devil who lives here.' The fancy-shoes people them were sophisticated and over-educated, and loved any excuse to insult their mayor. They said: ah-ah, the devil you seek is Hareth Okinyi!

And so Granny and her fourteen brothers and sisters and Pax called on Hareth Okinyi dawn-in and dusk-out. They made a song about him and sung it so loud and so well that at the end of the eight days, all the townspeople, fancy-shoes and barefoot all, were singing the song right along with them. Even the mayor's children sung the song! The mayor was so shame he came right out that night and promised he'd find a way to save their town. That night the whole city celebrated and sung in one voice.

Later the mayor died or got sick or disappeared or something, so the dam dried out the town anyway. Granny and her fourteen brothers and sisters and Pax ended up having to move down the mountain.

Granny says that whole area, the mountain town where she grew up and buried her parents, the capital at the bottom of the mountain, the fancy-shoes people, the beggars and mayors all - she says it has been replaced with a hotel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Brief findings on disruptive dams.  
> https://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/damnation-africas-big-dams  
> http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2456534/borneo_megadams_threaten_indigenous_ethnocide.html  
> https://www.earthrights.org/blog/hatgyi-dam-project-and-rights-indigenous-peoples  
> http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/17/india-dams-rivers-himalaya-wildlife  
> http://www.voacambodia.com/content/climate-change-dams-threaten-mekong-region-experts-warn/1626058.html  
> http://www.internationalrivers.org/campaigns/belo-monte-dam
> 
> 2\. Pok-a-puk was supposed to capture some of the sounds of _pickney_ , a deviation of the Portuguese pequeno/pequenino, used by some in the West Indies (and elsewhere) to refer to small children. (Not to be confused with its linguistic relative p*ckaninny, a revoltingly racist term for black babies + children.)


	7. A SECOND STORY ABOUT GRANNY

 

Granny used to run a bar in Orwei. She's got lots of grey photos of her making funny poses with cool-looking people. Lots of them are dead now; Granny goes to loads of funerals. Way long ago, Granny was a Droitist, and she made a bunch of museums give back stuff that didn't belong to them. But then it turned out the Droitists were secretly hurting people to make money, so she moved to Ralas and taught Hythiic for a while. That was where she met the Prince of Svaize, who fell in love with her and begged her to marry him. (This was before she met Mr Granny.) The Prince was very polite, very insistent, and he sent her lots and lots of letters with photos attached of him looking handsome and devastated. Granny keeps them all in a box disguised as a fake book. Finn found them on accident. _A Love Worth Waiting For_ \-- the only book that ever sounded interesting to him, and it turned out to not be real. Figures.

Finn is pretty sure Granny hasn't told him even half of all the interesting things that've ever happened to her, because whenever his aunties or uncles or Great-Ommer Pax call, they always laugh about stuff he doesn't understand.

'When I grow up, Granny,' Finn says one night, watching Granny crack open a crab with her bare hands, 'I wanna be just like you.'

Granny grumbles. 'Why would you want to be like me? You cannot be me or anybody else. You can be yourself, only.'

Still - that night she gives him an extra serving of matete.


	8. ANOTHER STORY ABOUT GRANNY

 

Granny said she saw aliens once. She doesn't like to talk about it.

 


	9. THE BUSH

 

Finn and Rey are Not Allowed to go into the bush. Granny says the bush is fill with spirits, is why, that they'll turn your head around and you won't never come out the same. Rey says that's a bunch of nonsense, and that Granny is just trying to scare them. Finn's not so sure about that one, on account of he heard Can't Lie Keola saying his cousin got ett up by a bad tree once. And you know what they say about Can't Lie Keola: he ain got no sense of humour.

Anyway, Rey's not scared of anything. Except dogs.

Really, you'd think Rey of all people would be more careful about the bush, 'specially seeing as how she got lost in there for so long. Finn doesn't remember too much about it, 'cus Granny says he got sick too bad, so she had to take him to see Docta Irti.

He remembers, though: climbing the hill to their house in the truck and seeing Rey on the porch at the top. Cross-legged, scowling and filthy; her face didn't even change when she saw them. Her face opened up a little when Finn threw himself out of the truck to get to her, but she only moved towards him once he tripped and bust his head all over the porch.

That was both a good and a bad day - Finn doesn't really like to poke at the memory too much.


	10. GRANNY'S HOUSE RULES

 

  1. Don't wake up the tenants
  2. You are not allowed outside after dark without an adult
  3. Everybody has their own place
  4. Don't swim when you're tired
  5. Don't go out into the bush alone
  6. If you don't recognise them, and you're all alone, don't talk to them
  7. If you're still hungry, it's ok to ask for more food
  8. It's ok to be scared
  9. Taking tools from the garage is wrong
  10. The roof is Absolutely Forbidden
  11. Leave people alone when they ask
  12. It is impolite to talk at the table in a language everyone can't speak
  13. Be kind



 


	11. WORDS

A list of English words that Finn can reliably understand, translate, and repeat in the language Rey has taught him:

  * Hello
  * Finn
  * Rey
  * Granny
  * not-dry (wet)
  * safe
  * plan
  * not-good (bad)
  * alone
  * family
  * son
  * waste
  * home
  * gone
  * destroy
  * return
  * wait
  * control
  * training
  * power
  * soon




	12. AN ADVENTURE

 

On Finn's birthday, he asks Granny for an adventure. 'An adventure?' Granny rolls out from under the Opo family van, which she is fixing as a favour, to peer up at him. 'What kind of adventure?'

'Maybe one where I get to go somewhere?' Finn stares at her straight on when he asks. Granny always treats him different when he gets nervous. Which is dumb.

Granny sits up, wipes her hands on the front of her vest. 'Adventures are a serious business, Finn,' she says, gravely. 'The last adventure I planned took three months to put together, you know.'

Finn nods and tries not to be disappointed. He already knew that a proper adventure takes good planning - he just hoped there might be a birthday exception or something. 'Alright,' he says. He has stuff that needs doing, anyway. 'I'm going to go take out the trash, ok?'

'Hold on!' says Granny, hopping up and moving very quickly towards him. 'I don't have an adventure for today--' her eyes are gleaming and she's got a tiny little secret smile, the kind Finn likes best '--but I can give you a quest.'


	13. A QUEST

 

It is Saturday after lunch, so Rey is out on the sand, reading. She already gave him his present -- a green beaded bracelet she made herself, plus two coupons for swimming together and/or watching THREE (3) episodes of P.I. Puppy Dog! -- and spent most of the morning trying to convince him that what he really wanted for his birthday was for the both of them to get kickboxing lessons. This didn't go too well, as Finn wasn't into kickboxing, really.

'I'm not into kickboxing, really,' he said. 'I'm more of a pacifier, you know.'

Rey scrunched up her face. 'Babies suck on you?'

Finn shook his head. Poor Rey - she was so naive. 'No, Rey - pacifiers keep the peace,' he said. This was very obvious - they'd learned about it in school, even. 'They don't like war or conflict...Unlike _some people_.'

Rey's face lit up with indignation. 'I, I'm a pacifier, too!' she shot back. 'I don't like war!'

'Oh, yes, you do too love war,' said Finn. 'You want to be a, a kickboxing _war hero_.'

In response, Rey kicked him in the shin, so Finn called her an anti-pacifier. She's been ignoring him since then. On his _birthday_.

'Rey, it's my _birthday_ ,' he says, when she barely looks up at him, not even when he stands over her. 'You can't ignore me on my _birthday_ , ok.' Rey continues reading forcefully. Finn plops down on the end of the towel, near her feet. 'Rey. rey. c'mon. I want to tell you something really important and very interesting and I can't if you're ignoring me.'

Rey stiffly puts her book down and sits up. She is wearing Sir Prude's sunhat and a pair of Granny's stylish sunglasses. She looks like a film actress...whose car has broken down. 'Take back what you said about me wanting to be a war hero first.'

That's fair. 'Ok,' says Finn. 'I'm sorry I said you want to be a war hero. I guess I was a little upset 'cus you were trying to get a birthday gift out of _my_ birthday. I didn't like that - but I still shouldn't've called you a' anti-pacifier. I'm sorry.'

Rey nods and takes off Granny's stylish sunglasses. 'It's ok,' she says. 'I'm sorry I tried to get you to do kickboxing, and I'm sorry I kicked you. I know you don't like fighting.'

'It's ok,' Finn says. 'I don't think anyone likes fighting. That's why people do kickboxing and stuff, right? Not so that they're good at fighting...but so they can get out of a fight without getting hurt. Right?'

'I guess so,' Rey says, stretching her arms behind her head. There's a little sandun crawling over her book -- _Hydraulic Dams in Baksat-Pon_ \-- so Finn reaches out and flicks it away. 'Now what's the very important and really interesting thing you wanted to tell me?'

'Oh, oh yeah! - Granny gave me a _quest_ , and you have to come with me,' says Finn.

Rey brings her arms back down, and stares at him with huge eyes. 'A quest? A really real quest?'

Finn's nodding so hard it feels like his head might fly off. 'A really real quest,' he says. 'We have to go and pick up a secret box from a secret man.'

Rey leaps to her feet, then starts hopping around, probably because of the pins and needles. 'What - are - we - waiting - for? Let's - go!' Finn starts hopping, too - it looks fun.

'Last - person - to - the - front - of - the - house - hastowalkbacksies, heyyy, you cheated! You started running when I wasn't ready!'

 

* * *

 

Finn has to walk backsies.

'What's a secret man look like, anyway?' Rey asks. They're waiting for the red man to turn green so they can turn on Perth. Down this way there's a whole lot of places that make all different kinds of food. They haven't come here many times, though, because Granny is frugal -- a word which means 'good cook' -- and also because Rey has a peanut allergy, so it's dangerous for her.

'He looks like a man...with a secret box,' Finn says, even though privately he's a little confused about how to tell a secret box from a regular one. Does it disappear when you look at it? If that's the case Finn can carry it, since he can currently only see the opposite of what everyone else is seeing.

'Well, what's a secret box look like?' Rey asks.

'Probably it looks like the box that the secret man's got-- ghhh--ow!' Rey stops too suddenly on the other side of the road and so Finn trips on the kerb he can't see and falls backwards onto his butt. 'Ow, Rey, what'd you go and do that for?'

When he looks up, Rey's face has gone pasty-white all over. 'Rey? What's the matter?' He stands and turns around -- just in time to get barrelled over by a big blur of brown.

The sun is gold in his eyes. A dog with a really slobbery tongue is licking his face.

'Hullo, there, doggie,' Finn says, trying to push the dog down a little. The dog starts licking his hands instead. Finn can't help laughing. 'What's your name?'

'Don't _talk_ to it, Finn. We have to go,' hisses Rey, wide-eyed and panicky. She got bit by a mean dog once, so Granny says they can't get a puppy, even though Finn really, really wants one, because then they could open up a detective agency and solve mysteries. But Granny says that sometimes you have to not get what you want -- like a crime-solving puppy -- because what _you_ want is what someone else really _doesn't_ want. And then sometimes you get what you sort of want (like strawberry ice cream) even if someone else doesn't really want it (like Rey) but only if you talk about it nicely beforehand and agree. That's called compromise.

'Alright, doggie. We have to go now, because you make my sister uncomfortable,' compromises Finn. 'But it was nice meeting you! See you around.'

The dog maybe...maybe doesn't understand Finn all that well? Because he starts following them. Finn knows this because he's walking backsies again and so he can see the dog happily ignoring all his mouthed _go home_ 's.

'Finn, is it following us?' says Rey, without turning around. She's squeezing his hand really tight and walking really fast and forgetting to warn him about the dips. Also, she hasn't asked him to read out the turns on Granny's directions in a while, so Finn's not all that certain where on Perth they are.  
  
'Uhhhhm.' Finn needs to get better at fibbing. 'No?'

Rey starts running, even though Finn could've told her that was a bad idea. Worse, she won't let go of Finn's hand, so he can't turn around. 'Reyreyrey,' he hiccups, 'it's really hard to run...! When I can't see where I'm-- _oooofh_!'

He hits something so big and so wide he feels like he's been flattened over backwards. It really hurts! 'Oww,' he says, weakly, waiting for everything to stop spinning.

When the word goes still again, the dog is patiently paused a few feet away, staring at him head-cocked - and Rey is nowhere to be seen.

 


	14. THE SECRET MAN

 

'Hullo, there,' says Finn, once he finally re-traces his steps and Granny's directions and goes the right way down Perth. The quest destination is a tiny place called Solo Sweets; the man inside looks mean.

The man does not say 'Hullo, there' - instead, he grunts once without looking up. The dog grunts back. The man glances up from his paper and frowns. 'No,' he says, pointing at the door. 'Get that dog out of here.'

'Oh,' Finn says. This quest is _awful_ so far. 'Ok. Sorry.' He goes back outside; the dog comes with him.

He'd hoped that Rey would be waiting inside, somehow. Now what's he supposed to do?

The door makes that jingling bell sound behind him. Finn turns around and nearly jumps a foot into the air - the mean man's followed him outside! Finn starts backing up immediately. He doesn't want to get shouted at again!

'Are you Finn?' asks the mean man.

Finn pauses. Is the mean man the secret man? 'A-are you the se-se-secret man?' he says.

The possibly secret man gives him an odd look and doesn't answer his question; instead, he hands him a napkin. 'Look, kid - I'm sorry for kicking you out earlier,' he says, once Finn's finished wiping his face. 'Maz didn't tell me you all had a dog.'

Finn is so fill up with frustration he could shout. He's not a kid! And also: 'I don't have a dog! I have a sister! But now this dog started following me so she ran away!' After that he can't talk at all because his breath and words keep getting all tumble-tangled in his throat. It's _really_ annoying.

'Alright, there,' says the secret man. 'You're fine, you're ok.' He sort of pats Finn on the back. 'Why don't you come on back inside. We'll call Maz, and we can get this whole thing figured out.'

 


	15. Final Notes.

 

So in this Finn doesn't... truly believe that he's an alien? Or not really. It's more that he believes that Rey is one, and since she's his family, he figures that he must be one, too. Probably.

Anyway the way I remember this actually playing out was that _Finn_ was sent to Earth by his parents, _Rey_ was abandoned by her family and found Finn in the bush, and the two of them lived on the streets together before Maz caught wind of it. The first time Rey gets lost in the bush, she goes back to where she remembers finding Finn; and there she finds the ship they hid together. And in the ship she finds a tablet. When she touches the tablet, a message begins to play. On the screen she sees a beautiful woman, with eyes just like Finn's, on the verge of tears. All she can make out is

 

\--jhishara ko-kih tet. A'lor'a, ashesharan-ko-keh tetya hos...jhi--jhijehko-kerrat, obu? Akomu'lu-sha, a jhekya, khokesherayaran. Akomi'le, obu. Akomi'le.

 

And Rey remembers the truth. She remembers that her parents didn't send her away. She remembers that they just left her behind. She remembers that she and Finn could not understand each other at first, that he kept speaking to her in the gibberish she later made sense of, and called their language. She remembers that it is Finn who is the alien, not her.

Anyway, somehow the people who hurt Finn's parents end up talking to Rey through the tablet, and telling her she's special, and unique, and better than other people, or whatever. Rey kind of goes darkside? And I hadn't planned for much beyond that. Poe gets introduced at some point? That's his dog who jumps all over Finn.

I wasn't a fan of the writing for Rey in The Last Jedi, though, specifically the writing for Rey and Finn's relationship, so I don't realistically think I'll ever finish this.

 


End file.
